The bulls continued to rule the Dalal Street as equity benchmark indices hit new lifetime peaks on Thursday with the 30-stock Sensex 69.57 points away from 86,000 mark.
Sensex closed at 85,836.12 after hitting an all-time high of 85,930.43 around 3.05 pm while Nifty settled at 26,216.05 after striking a record high of 26,250.90 at 3.05 pm.
The major trigger in the Thursday rally was the bullish Asian markets, including Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. European markets were also in the positive territory.
The banking and auto stocks led the rally with Nifty Bank recording a lifetime peak of 54,467 and Nifty Auto hitting fresh all-time high of 27,526.
The biggest gainer on Thursday was Maruti Suzuki (4.68 per cent), followed by Tata Motors, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance and Nestle. The laggards were Larsen & Toubro and NTPC.
However, mid and small cap indices underperformed the benchmarks.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 973.94 crore the previous day, lured by cheap markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong. However, it is unlikely to impact Dalal Street as Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) continue to be net buyers, with inflows of equities worth Rs 1,778.99 crore.
